Peace Talks

Workplace violence gets the headlines, but is a less dramatic
kind of conflict eating away your profits? "When employees are
bickering, pouting, arguing, it's costing you
productivity," says Albert Couch, a professional mediator in
Akron, Ohio.

You know what these conflicts look like: John has stopped
talking to Sue, Tim won't be on a team with Bob, and Mary yells
at just about everybody. Employees' voices get raised to loud
volumes, and, often, feelings are hurt and a sullen mood hangs
everywhere. Why are they fighting? Maybe Oscar never makes fresh
coffee when he drains the pot, Maria has let her desk turn into a
messy jumble, and Boris blows his nose and throws the tissues on
the floor instead of in a basket.

Shouldn't people know better than to fight over little
things? Maybe so, but the workplace reality is otherwise.
"Much conflict is rooted in small stuff, but the emotions
behind the conflict are what matter," says Couch. "Those
emotions can assume great significance."

Even so, the knee-jerk reaction of most bosses is to try to
ignore these squabbles. "Most bosses just aren't
comfortable dealing with any kind of conflict among their
staff," says Louisa Rogers, owner of The Trusting Edge, a
management consulting company in Palo Alto, California. While most
bosses try to wish their people conflicts away, guess what?
"When these problems are ignored, they fester and grow,"
says Rogers.

The stakes are higher today, too. As workers are asked to do
more, tempers flare faster and fights are harder to extinguish.
Worse, such conflicts represent an escalating danger to the
profitability of leanly staffed businesses. "You cannot ignore
your workers' feelings and expect to be successful. That's
abdication of an important management role," warns Robert
Vecchio, a professor of management at the University of Notre Dame
in Notre Dame, Indiana.

"Productivity is the yardstick to use in deciding whether
to intervene or not," adds Couch. "If the fight is
hurting productivity, you have to get involved."

Bury The Hatchet

How can a boss resolve a petty dispute between employees? Step
one, say the experts, is creating an atmosphere that squelches
tiffs before they become problems. "Set explicit norms for
office behavior and widely promulgate them in memos, bulletins and
meetings," advises Jerry Osborne, an associate professor of
clinical psychology at the University of Houston.

This means coming up with guidelines that, for instance, ban
obscenities, insults and abusive behavior. The more specific, the
better. "Lay out measurable expectations for how people are to
behave. Then advise the staff that they will be held accountable
for living up to these norms," says Pat Wagner, co-owner of
Pattern Research, a Denver-based workplace training company.

Step two: Sweeten the deal by establishing group-based rewards,
advises Vecchio. The point? To tangibly remind workers they are all
in the same boat. "A group-based bonus gets people looking at
each other not as enemies but as brothers and sisters," says
Vecchio. Even a small bonus rooted in group behavior may be enough
to bring more harmony to your business.

Finally, you need to model appropriate behavior. "Employees
take a lot of clues from the boss. If the boss is good-humored,
direct in dealing with others, and follows the rules set down for
everybody, that's 90 percent of the solution for ending
workplace conflicts," says Wagner. "If the boss isn't
a role model, it's much tougher." Just as a parent cannot
curse out a kid for using obscenities, a boss who verbally abuses
employees can't demand harmonious conduct from them. Until your
behavior is up to par, don't expect good behavior from
employees.

Final Warning

What if workers continue to bicker, despite clear rules and your
good example? Don't turn a blind eye--that tells people your
workplace conduct standards are just for show. Instead, quickly
call workers on any infractions. "Make clear that their
conduct is not acceptable and get their commitment to cease such
behavior in the future," says Osborne.

But do this privately, not publicly--not only to respect the
parties' privacy but, just as crucially, to prevent a public
airing of strife from dividing the other workers. "Keeping it
private helps prevent everybody else from taking sides," says
Osborne.

Put the burden on the employees to sort out their problems.
"I've seen managers who spend virtually all their time
resolving personnel issues," warns Rogers. "Every
conflict is brought directly to `mom' or `dad'--that's
the role this boss plays in the workplace. Workers never learn to
resolve their own difficulties."

Of course, this doesn't mean you can't give tips. For
instance: "A big step toward ending conflict is to ask the
parties to [consider] the other point of view," says mediator
Couch. "The aim is to get them to put aside emotion and
concentrate on facts."

They're still at each other's throats? Have them enlist
a neutral third party to mediate. "People frequently just want
to vent. This gives them a place to do it and also lets them see
the other point of view," says Couch.

Should you be the third-party mediator? There are risks. As the
boss, you are "an authority figure, and that may make it
harder for workers to open up in front of you," says
Couch.

Second, as Rogers warns, "You cannot afford to spend most
of your time settling employee differences."

If your business is so small that this buck has to stop at your
desk, consider a tactic Couch uses: He asks participants to list
their resentments--then burns the list. "The resentments
literally go up in smoke," says Couch. "It's gotten
good results."

If that doesn't end the civil war, your last move is tough
love: Lay the hard facts on the line about the costs the business
is suffering and why the fighting has to swiftly end. Then
"make the workers mutually responsible for a positive outcome.
Say `Your jobs are on the line here. Work this out,' "
says Couch. Be very clear that prolonging this tiff will result in
terminations, then set a deadline for an absolute cessation of
strife.

The upshot of it all is likely to be a stronger, more cohesive
work team. Indeed, while many bosses fear a fight will weaken
employee morale, successfully concluded fights tend to build
cohesiveness.

"Often conflicts are real opportunities for a team to come
together," says Couch. "Once people have worked through
unpleasantness, they work much better together."

Robert McGarvey writes on business psychology and management
topics for several national publications. To reach him online with
your questions or ideas, e-mail rjmcgarvey@aol.com.